USAID/Mongolia :: Programs

The Wildlife Conservation Society saves wildlife and wild lands through careful science, international conservation, education, and the management of the worldā€™s largest system of urban wildlife parks. Together, these activities change individual attitudes toward nature and help people imagine wildlife and humans living in sustainable interaction on both a local and a global scale. WCS is committed to this work because we believe it essential to the integrity of life on Earth.

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Contact the Mission

USAID/Mongolia
P.O. Box 1021
Ulaanbaatar-13
MONGOLIA
Phone: 976-11-312390
Fax: 976-11-310440
Email the Mission

August 2009

Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)
www.wcs.org

WCS Global Health Program

Avian Influenza Surveillance -- The WCS avian influenza (AI) surveillance team concluded the 2009 field surveys at the end of August and returned to Ulaanbaatar. Surveys this year were particularly significant, as highly pathogenic avian influenza H5N1 has been recorded in Mongolia for the first time since May 2006. Two outbreaks have been confirmed this summer in Arkhangai aimag (one in May, the second in August), with a further outbreak reported by Russian virologists along the shores of Uuvs Nuur in Tuva in June. The team, comprising two WCS veterinarians and a group of eight Mongolian students of ecology and veterinary medicine, collected over 3,000 samples between June and August including at two of the outbreak sitesā€”Uuvs Nuur and Doroo Tsagaan Nuur. Samples are now being prepared for export in late September, with analyses to be performed at the University of Hong Kong and University of California, Davis. A summary of surveillance findings and sampling work is being prepared for distribution to USAID and local partners.